SL Police officer grabs 10 acres of lands at Kokkaddi in Champoor

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 July 2017, 14:38 GMT]An SL Police officer, A.K.A. Sawahir, who chased away uprooted Tamil villagers who went to their village of Kokkdaddi (Vaddavan) in October 2015 on the instruction of Moothoor Divisional Secretary V. Yoosuff and the SL Forest Department, has now illegally grabbed 10 acres of lands at the same locality for himself with the help of the DS Secretary, allege the Tamil villagers who have been refused access to their lands in Champoor East of Trincomalee district. Kokkaddi is an ancient Tamil coastal village with fertile upper lands suitable for agriculture and farming.

The people of Kokkaddi village were uprooted in 1998 following SL military occupation.

Later, when the LTTE liberated Champoor, the people were able continue with agriculture although they stayed away from their houses due to SL Navy firing.

There are still temple structures remaining the village which has become a jungle. As usual the SL Forest Department was making claim of the lands.

The Divisional Secretary Yoosuff was instrumental in putting up notices warning the uprooted Tamil villagers who were clearing their lands in 2015 to stay away from the lands.

At that time, Mr Sawahir, who was serving as the Officer-in-Charge at Champoor police was chasing away the people.

Now he has obtained 10 acres of lands, the people complain.

They blame the Divisional Secretary as collaborating with Colombo-centric politicians and authorities in discriminating resettling Tamils of Champoor.